Hopes of a revived trans-Pennine rail link diminish
HOPES of a 40-mile trans-Pennine link from Northallerton on the East Coast Main Line to join the SettleCarlisle Line at Garsdale look like being lost forever.
A failure by the Upper Wensleydale Railway (UWR) to get beyond the second round of a grant application has triggered a report from Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority Park Services Director Kathryn Beardmore, which implies that the railway will now never be put back.
The Authority has voted to tear up its long-standing protection policy and to instead consider converting the six-mile scenic section west of the market town of Hawes into a footpath and cycleway. There would be no room for a reinstated railway alongside it.
Authority members have adopted the analysis and agree that there is an urgent need for the alignment to be used for tourist use and for diverting people from dangerous local roads. Subject to public approval, conversion work could start as early as next year.
The UWR was set up in 2008 to create a service managed by a main line train operator such as Northern, with through trains to Manchester via Blackburn and Clitheroe. It felt that it was making good progress until the Reversing Beeching Fund setback last year.
While the line still has most of its original structures in place, there are pinch points along the alignment which will prevent rails being laid alongside a public tourist path unless millions of pounds are spent widening what was only ever single-track.
And while some Authority members support the UWR concept, they are outnumbered by those who do not believe it will ever happen. Seven landowners have also refused access to a survey team.
The future of Appersett and Mossdale viaducts has never been in question, but there are four missing structures to replace.
At the eastern end of the route, the similarly named but separate Wensleydale Railway currently extends to Redmire.
Northallerton-Garsdale direct journeys ceased with the withdrawal of passenger services as far as Hawes in April 1954, and the western section went in March 1959. The 22-mile line from Northallerton to Redmire was retained for limestone traffic until 1992 and is still used occasionally by the Ministry of Defence.
The Wensleydale Railway has been running trains over the line since 2003. But it has been slow to expand because a lack of money and the challenges faced by replacing a number of missing small bridges and structures including at Apedale Beck, just beyond Redmire.
It acquired Aysgarth station (the next along the route) but sold it again two years ago because of its
high maintenance costs.
One Park Authority member, Cosima Townley, said at a meeting on March 29 that the continued mothballing of the HawesGarsdale section was “simply wasting time and wasting a great asset” that could be enjoyed by a host of people, particularly horse riders whom she said were repeatedly overlooked in favour of cyclists.
The consultation proposals can be viewed on www.surveymonkey. co.uk/r/HLB53RY